A little touch of primitive for fall is so fun.

In this case…leave it on the ledge between the family room and kitchen.  😉  How fun is that?  I love it!  So much fun… as we look forward to fall.

Yes…I did happen to go back to the “honey hole.”  The name of the store is actually Creative Poverty.  It’s the old hotel place that I visited a couple of weeks ago.  She has so much fun stuff that you kinda have to rein yourself in and dream about stuff until your next visit.  (The dolls were gone today…hmmmmmm…..)  Anyway, I thought that the candles were so cozy for this time of year.  Plus, I do have a surplus of mason jars.  (The color…you know.  ;))  The really cool thing is that you just leave it on all the time.  They take two AA batteries and she said that she has had them last two months before.  We have rechargeable batteries for later…so that is kind of… win/win.  Yay team!

Happy Friday, Dirt Roaders!  Crank up those fall scented candles…it’s not long now!

Okay, because I am an honest person, I have to confess.  This is not our porch this year.  It is our porch… last year.  I’m sorry.  Do you forgive me?  😉

Someone mentioned to me the other day that they were worried about the pumpkin crop.  I guess that the drought this summer had them wondering.  Do any of you know?  Have you heard one way or the other? I hope that we can still get pumpkins. (Without paying an arm, a leg and a little toe.) Big ol’ fat (real) pumpkins are my fav.  I love them in all different colors.

A porch, big or small, always makes a statement.  I think that the mood of the inside of your home can be felt on your porch.  Why not set a pumpkin on your porch?  When you drive up to your home…it will be there…to greet you.

Happy Wednesday, Dirt Roaders.  ~((()))~

~WeLcOmE~

Okay…before I get started I have to tell you something sad.  I have no before or during pictures of this project.  I only have the finished product.  You are going to have to use your imagination.  Imagination is good, right?  I thought so.  (Unless you imagine creepy, limbless dolls, going bump in the night. Okay…enough with the dolls. )

Okay so…this chest used to be in our little girl’s room.  We had two.  They were actually free and brown.  I had a wild hair when our church was cleaning out an old rental property…many moons ago.  So…we became the proud owners.  It was wonderful because I had this brainstorm of painting each drawer a different color.  It was grand….for quite a while.  So cute….so” little girly.”  Then they got NEW (like actually from the store new) bedroom furniture.  Sooooooo….the little “labor of love” chests went to the basement.

Fast Forward to 2011:

One day…I got, yet another, wild hair.  “Honey will you drag one of them thar chests up out of the basement?”  (Okay…I don’t really talk like that.)  He did.  I smiled.  He moaned and groaned and called our chiropractor.  (Not really…I made that last part up.)  Anyway, for some reason my little brother was there and he got in on this too.  Ahhh yes…I remember now.  He was told by our mother to bring me that antique mirror that hangs over our mantle.  I also remember that I paid him to do it.  Smart little brother. So…back to the chest.

I decided to apply some of that wall paper that looks like old ceiling tiles to the fronts of the drawers.  Then I painted it a wonderful antique-y green color…that was actually left from our master bathroom.  My friend Jodi actually did this wall paper on her ceiling and it looks amazing.  She lives in a wonderful, old, two-story house.  That is another story for another day though.

So…this is the story of a poor little chest that could have been part of a bonfire.  Alas…I looked deep into its little soul and said, “Would you like to come home with us?  We will put you to work.  I can tell that you still have life left in you.  You will hold our little one’s clothes with great care and then someday I will make you beautiful.”  Okay…I didn’t say all of that…but if you are a true junker…this kind of stuff is swirling in your head….most of the time.

Happy Tuesday, Dirt Roaders!  Have mercy on some junk!

Here they are.  Like I said.  Just a few little hints of fall…from our house to yours.  I hope that you find a little inspiration to drag out your fall decor.  It’s so fun!  Come on Dirt Roaders….it’s time to get cozy.  😉

I have a friend.  Her name is…well…to protect her identity… lets just call her…S.  One day S. and I were on the phone.  She started talking about her fall decor.  We were flapping our gums, as only we women can, and all of a sudden she said something about loving her stuff that was fall-y.  I started laughing…then she started laughing.  Now, I do need to tell you this, S. is an asthmatic.  Sometimes when she laughs, she gets silent.  It’s okay if I’m with her but when we are on the phone it’s scary.  I have to ask her if she is still with me.  Okay…. this may not even be funny to you but it was to us.  I said “Do you mean autumnal?”  This made it even funnier.  We decided that we really didn’t care…we liked “fall-y” the best.  Ain’t nothin’ too good for us.  😉

Happy Thursday Dirt Roadakins!  😉

These are the “punkums” that my sweet husband spray painted for me and the little fall banner that I made after hanging out on Pinterest. I thought about spraying the pumpkins again…since we just used his chrome spray paint….but I kinda like the two different finishes of silver. Nice contrast. Whatcha think? Chrome or do I go buy the Looking Glass paint? Opinions greatly appreciated!

(I usually don’t post twice in one day.  This was actually for the 5th…but I went ahead and posted before midnight.  Idk…I just want my early morning readers to enjoy. ;))

Okay.  I admit…that sounds weird.  Real weird.  But I do have a little story to tell.  It is a little creepy.  It’s a lot good but a little creepy.

One day last week, I spent the day with a friend.  We went out-of-town on a little road trip.  She had happened upon this “honey hole” of a place.  (Do you know what that means?  It’s like a good fishin’ hole but to a junker…it’s a place where you hear heavenly music when you see a pile of good junk.)

When we pulled up to the amazing place on the back side of a railroad track I was so excited, I think I even said, “Do you hear angels singing?”  The place was uber  super (my daughter thinks I’m too old for words like that…hee hee) cool!  It was actually an old motel.  I’m talking old like as in old, old.  What could be better?  All of that cool stuff for sale…and in a really old hotel/motel (someone tell me the difference…) that was just oozing character. Some of the stuff was new and some was not.  This brings me to the scary dolls and beans.

After we gleaned through the things on the main level…we then ascended this MAHVALOUS old staircase.  More antiques and such up there…and then we happened onto this little room that at one time must have been a child’s nursery.  The reason I knew is because there was actually a painted rug on the hardwood floor.  Then…much to our horror there were boxes of doll parts.  My friend, very creeped out, was trying to cover the doll parts with other junk in the room.  We were both  weirded out.  Not long after that…like the grown women that we are,  we casually ran (just kidding) walked down the staircase.  My friend then began to tell me that she was glistening.  (She is from the South…like as in… more south that I.) I said “Girl, around here…you are not glistening…you are sweating! In the Ozarks…we just sweat.  😉

Okay…so now you are wondering about the beans.  Well…we both spied this amazing little primitive scoop.  There is something about primitive things in the fall.  To me they just feel cozy when other parts of the year I am a little (just a little) more modern.  Modern Farmhousy….that’s my style.  Doesn’t that sound like something you would want to buy!?  lol!  Anywho……she said “Ahhhh…wouldn’t that be great in a big jar?”  We both realized that I had a big jar…and birthday moolah burning a hole in my wallet.  So…I bought the scoop, plus some other goodies.  Then I bought four bags of baby limas over the weekend.  There you have it…scary dolls and beans.

The End.

Not really….I have one more thing to say.  I love it when I visit a new little place and I feel like I have made a new friend.  The lady there was so kind.  I can’t wait to visit with her again!

Watch out for doll parts Dirt Roaders!  😉

Truly…..ours was.  The chickens that we bought back in the spring have now started their egg production.  YAY!  Our children now have their own business and have already had their very own “egg meeting.”  I did have to explain that they were equal partners and that no one was the CEO of the company at this time.

We also celebrated a birthday this weekend.  Our son partied his little heart out.  He and his dad and one of his sisters hit it big at the rock climbing wall.  It was so fun to watch.  Momma don’t do no heights…if you want Momma to refrain from cardiac arrest!   Soooooo….I was a good spectator…with our other daughter.  Took lots of pictures, surely that counts for something, right?  🙂

Guess what else happened at our house?  FALL BABY!   That is right.  It was rainy on Friday so I could no longer resist.  I have a few more things to tweak and another idea to try (maybe) and then I will post a few pics…just to try to help you along if you are stumped.  You know “love one another.”  🙂  Maybe it will inspire you the way that some of you inspire me.  Sometimes for me, just seeing someone else’s take on something… get the wheels turnin’.

One more thing.  We had amazing services at our home church over the weekend.  God is good…to give us blessings like these.

Happy Tuesday Dirt Roaders!

p.s. My longsuffering hubby spray painted some of my pumpkins SILVER this weekend.  LOVE…LOVE…LOVE!  😉

So, not everyone names the “animals” in their kitchen.  We do.  At least we have been lately.  We arrived at the name of Greasy Ann because this little lady sits on our stove.  She is quite the classy little gal.  Even when she needs to be wiped down because I forgot to move her…..before frying something.

Do you have crazy “animals” in your kitchen?  I would love to hear about them.  Maybe you are an elephant famer…so you have an elephant egg timer.  No?  Okay.

Happy Friday Dirt Roaders!  Have a happy and safe holiday.

Greasy Ann in all of her glory.

Okay….okay.  I’m jumping the gun a little.  Fall is actually the twenty-second of September.  The thing is, I luff to decorate for fall.  What is it about fall?  It is soooooooooooo cozy.  It makes me want to eat chili and burn apple scented candles.  It makes me want to make goodie bags for people and pumpkin bread for my neighbors.  (Okay…I don’t always get these things done…just in case my neighbors are reading this.)

I think that this love affair with fall goes back to childhood. Smelling wood smoke in the air, eating good soup at Granny’s house, darkness settling earlier, all these things seem so cozy to me.  Maybe that is why I love to make huge vats of soup for my family.  There is just something about that nip in the air that seems to promise the joy of things to come.  Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Maybe that was it…it was the beginning of things to look forward to.

I hope that I have inspired you.  I hope that you run to your box of fall decor and shamelessly put it out all around you.  I hope that you cruise Pinterest and every favorite blog and look for good ideas.  I have a few up my sleeve that I plan on trying this year.  Remember…the sooner you put it out…the longer you get to enjoy it.  Live, laugh, love and get with it…Dirt Roaders!  😉

Sweet little “not-so-pretty” pumkins and gourds are my favorite.